Sunday 28 May 2017

Going up in the world

Well,  my wobbly seats were simply because I hadn't put a washer between nut and floor - doh!

However,  I had a much bigger problem - the seat was just too low,  so that the harness run was not straight. The IVA manual clearly states that if the harness touches the seat slot,  that becomes the mounting point for testing purposes and there is no way the plastic harness slot would be considered strong  enough for the job.

So,  I ordered some huge,  hefty steel bar to run across the width of the seat,  raising it by 50mm. Lucky I didn't pay for the lowered floor option (GBS gave it free for ordering at Stoneleigh) otherwise I would have wasted that money!

So,  bars cut and holes drilled:



(note I ordered the wrong bolts - they need to be fully threaded so I can put bolts up inside the tube. While I wait for the right bolts,  this was just to confirm it did the job).

Seatbelts runs much better now - before:


.... and after :



After the seats are done,  the only thing left is a rubber cover to go over the exhaust clamp spring and that will be that! Feels weird to write that...my last 2 years have been spent agonising over something I need to do on the car and now... Nothing.

Hoping to get online with Emerald a week on Tuesday (half term this week,  got to do family stuff) to try improve the engine map,  then book a session at a garage with the gas analyser (and to setup the headlights,  I guess).

Only 3 weeks to IVA...!

Wednesday 17 May 2017

Hard and sparky

Finally got my VIN plate welded in - many thanks Bob! Turns out that years ago,  we both worked at the same company on the same computer system,  although our time didn't overlap - small world!

As Bob himself admitted,  it's not the neatest job but considering the tight space he had to work in,  it's fine. I'm just in the process of painting the bare metal and I'm going to try make the digits clearer with red paint - the engraving isn't very deep.

Started on the passenger seat,  fitting the runners:


And, amazingly, fitting through the floor went really easily. I stuck some paper down and placed the seats in the right place,  pressing down to make holes in the paper. Removed the seat and just drilled through the holes in the paper. With my drilling history,  I expected to need to spend hours filing the holes to get the seat to fit but no,  put the seat back in and it dropped straight in! Miraculous!

However,  after tightening the bolts, the seat is a bit wobbly.  This must be because,  effectively,  the runners are sitting on the 4 nuts and are not flush to the floor but I don't know how else to do it. I'll have to think about it...

Tightened the seatbelt bolts with threadlock and fitted covers for the deadly sharp edges:



Saturday 13 May 2017

Soft and squidgy

Spent an hour putting IVA trim on the bits that need it; front hubs,  bottom of the rear panel and steering wheel:


Looks  pretty horrible and I hope it's enough.

UPDATE: Yup, it was.

Put numerous nut covers on but,  annoyingly considering I bought the covers off GBS and you'd think they know how many I'd need,  I've not got enough! More on order...

Good news is that I've got my laptop talking to my ECU and I took the excuse to go for another little drive.  Bad news is that I still don't have any self-centering going forward but I do have it in reverse - I wonder if I can persuade the IVA guy to do it that way :-). Not sure whether I should be loosening the rack even more - I loosened it by about 2 turns of the nut which felt like a lot.

IVA plate to be welded on Wednesday and I'll try arrange a remote session with Emerald sometime next week.

Seat runners here BUT the bolts I've got are too long. I ordered more,  along with nuts and washers,  so seats won't be done this weekend.

Wednesday 10 May 2017

Target locked - engage panic stations

So, the IVA date is booked - June 19th at Yeading (west London).

About 6 weeks away...I could have booked Gillingham on June 6th but I'm not 100% sure I'll be ready. However, if I find I am, they said I could phone back and try get an earlier date.

Outstanding jobs:

1. Seats - new runners should be with me tomorrow so I can hopefully get that done on the weekend.

2. IVA trim - cover all those vicious edges that will cause a scratch on the already-mutilated body of any pedestrian I hit.

3. VIN number welded on to chassis. I've got the steel tab back from the engravers and I should be able to get this done one evening next week.

4. Steering self-centering - I hope the loosening of the steering rack has fixed this.

5. ECU setup - the biggest worry. However, some good news; I called Emerald today and they offered to remotely connect to my laptop and help with the setup! Genius (provided I can fix the problem with my laptop connecting to the ECU). Once that is done, I will take the car to a local garage to do an MOT - well, the headlights and emissions parts of the MOT (I've spoken to the garage and they are happy to do this).

Looking at that, 6 weeks is easily enough time BUT item 5 is the concern.

Getting excited...

Sunday 7 May 2017

Never say never

Being so close to the end of my build,  I keep saying 'that's the last time I'll use that tool' and almost every time,  I've had to use it again.

The latest was my hacksaw - I used it for my handbrake surround and put it away thinking I wouldn't be using it again but I come to fit the surround and I realise it's had to move 3mm because of the tiny little screws on the side of the handbrake switch and now it doesn't fit! So,  a couple of hours doing a new one...

Luckily, the glue on the gearstick gaiter cleaned off with white spirit and with the two surrounds and gaiters on,  from a distance,  they look ok:


I cut too much off the handbrake gaiter so it isn't held in  with anything - if I get time,  I'll buy a new one.

Worryingly, I can't connect my laptop to the ECU,  even with the new USB connector, and I've tried a second PC which also doesn't work. I'm not sure what's going on there...

I'm told the self-centering might be fixed by loosening the bolts on the U-clamp that holds the steering rack on (I do have a habit of over-tightening). I've done that and will see if it helps on my next outing.

As promised,  a better pic of my seats:



Saturday 6 May 2017

The Great Unveiling

Today was a biggie - my seats arrived and look great, although tiny. Unfortunately,  they're so small that the universal runners I've got are too wide for them,  so a new set are on order.

I needed to get a photo of the car 'finished' for the IVA application which was a great excuse to get it out the garage,  seats in (vaguely) and the last of the panel covering removed - ta dah!





Sorry,  should have got a clearer shot of the seats - I'll do that for next time.

While the car was out,  I wanted to go for a real drive,  just up the road but enough to check out if she actually vaguely works. First,  I wanted to try play with the ECU but I couldn't get my PC to connect up. After some mucking about,  it briefly connected but went again,  which suggests the cheap USB adaptor I bought has gone AOL. I've been to Maplins and bought a decent one and I'll try again tomorrow.

As I haven't actually started the car since November,  I was a bit apprehensive but no worries,  started first time. The idle isn't very smooth (which is why I wanted to play with the mapping) but not too bad.

So,  bright sunny day, a rumbling engine in a sexy little body (the car,  not me) - it would be rude not to. So off I rumbled up the road... 200m and back. She runs horribly; map desperately needs sorting out and I have no self-centering of the steering which is an IVA fail,  so needs fixing.

The brakes are rubbish but I'm not sure if that's just me not being used to non-servo brakes,  the pads needing bedding in or bleeding - most likely all three.

Positives? The speedo works,  which I'm very happy about because it could be annoying to fix.

But the best bit was the drive; the noise,  the wind (even at 25mph), the mechanical clunk's and whines - awesome! My wife became my first passenger and even she loved it (she's shown little interest up to now).

So,  list of jobs:

1. Steering self-centering.
2. Brake bleeding.
3. Fit seats.
4. Engine map improvement.

In other news,  my IVA is being engraved on a steel tab at a local shoe repair shop and a nice chap from the RHOCAR forum has kindly offered to weld it for me.

I've made an utter dogs dinner of the gearstick gaiter,  getting glue everywhere but it will do for now.

And finally,  the story of the day:


Tuesday 2 May 2017

Totally surrounded

Ok, the handbrake surround didn't  go as well as the gearstick (and that's not exactly a masterpiece). So I decided to make use of that 3mm ally sheet I attempted to make a bash plate with before and just make the surround out of a flat piece.

Shape cut-out and central piece chopped out:


Lots of filing and sanding later:



I've gone with the brushed look because it signifies speed and power and... OK,  so it hides all the scratches I made. Once again,  my ability at aesthetically pleasing details is utter trash. One day,  I'll try improve this (and other) bits but,  for now it will do.

I went to Stoneleigh yesterday which was a good day out but it was slightly wasted on me - I couldn't think of anything to buy and I asked a few piffling questions of Richard on the GBS stand. Good to see some other cars although it is a bit worrying how kit cars don't last very well. Some of the older ones are looking decidedly shabby and,  realistically,  that's likely to be me in a few years. Then again,  the shabiness has a charm of its own and they do have a certain Mad-Max feel to them.

Intatrim are starting to annoy me now - no news of when my seats will be ready and yet their FB page keeps showing posts of lots of other customer work being delivered - now into the 5th week of waiting (when they promised 3).

My IVA application is on hold because they want one more picture of the finished car which I don't have,  obviously.  If the seats haven't arrived by the weekend,  I'll have to send them what I have and hope it's enough.